Whoopsie Daisy

You'd think that week of vacation would have been invigorating, right?  Well, it was.  But then I came home, scheduled eight separate blogs and didn't give this page another thought.  Now it seems I've missed a week.  Oops!  Guess I'm a slacker.

In keeping with our normal theme, the days have been pretty busy here in our little yellow corner of the world.  Work is rockin' right now, super busy with lots of overtime and what looks like some potential opportunities on the horizon.  Since my last post, I've worked almost 20 hours of OT, and it's still hoppin'.  My reward to myself for all these extra hours: within the next month or so, I will be dropping some of that hard-earned coin on a brand new 8-inch concert banjo uke.  Stay tuned for updates on that, as I'm sure it will have a whole post devoted to it.  I've been dreaming about this thing for months, and I am super excited to make it mine.

But enough about that for now.  Here are some  highlights from our last two weeks:

The weekend after we got home from Red House, The Hubbs went up to
The Land of Beef Jerky with his parents and grandparents.  While they
were gone, I spoiled my girls rotten.  Not only did Piggy get to fly; she
also got to sleep in her daddy's spot on the bed.

All three of us spent lots of time in the yard, and the sprinkler got a world-
class workout.

While The Princess played in the sprinkler, I played on the sidewalk.  Lucky
for me, I got a good picture of my artwork before she got to it, though I'll
admit I'm kinda partial to this one.  I like to call it "Attack of the Fifty Foot
Princess."

Piggy loves to be by her people, and she puts up with all sorts of
shenanigans from us.  Shortly after this one, she grew tired of my silliness,
laid her head on her paws and came up with bright blue jowels.  It was
adorable.

See, Bumpa?  Told you I was workin' on a bumper crop
of freckles this year!

After a perm, two colorings and lots of chlorine, my hair
was fried.  After picking The Princess up from The
Grumps' house on Friday, I grabbed the shears and
lost some weight. :)

We had a picnic in the park, complete with stray fry
cleaner upper.

After our picnic, we walked down to the lake.

She desperately wanted to jump in, and this is during an impassioned plea
for her case.

There was lots of swinging in the yard.

And in the neighborhood park.

This is how you put on a bikini.  Everyone else is doing
it wrong.

After Da got home, we all went to the beach.

And then this weekend, Da continued with his immense popularity,
spending Saturday with the infamous Uncle D.  While they caught up in
the 'burbs, I took my girls out for a fun-filled day with The Grumps.

Lots of fun and games on the boat.

Piggy was in her glory.  She especially liked the channels, where she could
interact with her adoring public on the passing boats.

Piggy opted to stay in the boat with Grumpa while Grumma and I took The
Princess in at the sand bar, though she didn't want to spend much time
in the water.  It was not quite 80 degrees outside, and she caught a chill.
Good thing her momma thought to bring a set of dry clothes for her
to change into.

After our four hour boat ride, we returned to the launch at the local American Legion post to pull the boat out.  It was also their customer appreciation day, so we hung out for the pig roast and live music.  Though the music was way too loud, the food and company were awesome. Piggy happily made friends with everyone who locked eyes with her, and she was relieved to find that she was not the pig being roasted. :)  After about two hours or so, The Princess had had enough.  If I'm being perfectly honest, I had too.  It was a heck of a day.  So I corralled my girls and headed back to our little yellow house. 

This is actually the second of three haircuts I did last weekend...here's The
Princess showing off her newly trimmed locks while we watched a BBC
ocean documentary last night.  I also chopped Grumma's hair super-
short, and Grumpa keeps calling her Drill Sergeant.  Yeah.  She
doesn't love that.  It's totally adorable, though.

And then this morning, she dressed herself and got in
the car before I even got out of my towel after a
shower.  Yes, that's a cardigan over a bare chest with
long shorts and flip flops.

She was just so stinkin' cute getting herself ready and into the car that I didn't have the heart to make her come back inside.  I quickly got dressed, grabbed Piggy, and we headed out to pick up a fast food breakfast before Da got home.

Today has been one of those days...you know the ones...where all I wanted to do was be a couch potato, but the world seemed to be working against me.  The Hubbs' phone started malfunctioning while he was at Uncle D's house last night, so we had to go to the cell provider store to get him switched over to an old Blackberry his parents had given us as a spare.  True to form, the customer service was atrocious, and this task took about an hour with a rude salesman.  AND it turns out the battery was fried, so we had to send The Hubbs out to a nearby town to buy a new one.  So the malfunctioning phone just cost us a couple of hours and forty bucks, but at least he has a working communications device for the moment.

We also tackled The Princess's back to school shopping, which was super-light compared to some previous years.  The Fabulous Mrs. G. is great at keeping things streamlined and economical, as we are not the only family in the program who are living on a bit of a shoestring.  Her program has moved to another new school this year, where they hope to stay for a good long time.  Orientation is Tuesday, and I'll be hightailing it back from work to make it in time.

But the best news about today: SHARK WEEK!  It starts in three minutes, so please forgive me, but I need to glue myself to the Discovery Channel for about a week now.  :)